Birthdays, Pink Monkeys and Flammable Liquids

Today is my mom's birthday. And even though she'll never see this (she's technologically-challenged), I'd like to wish her a happy birthday!

I recently went back to my hometown, about an hour and a half away, and got my car inspected. I go back home to do this because here, it costs around $50, BUT when I go home, it costs a mere $12. Wow. Big difference, huh? I guess there is something to be said for small towns.

While I was home, my mom was anxious to show me a photo she stumbled upon while doing some cleaning. She asked me to guess who it was. I had no idea. As it turns out, it was my grandmother (on my mom's side) when she was young. I wanna say 14, but I'm not sure. Anyway, she'd had some copies made at their local CVS pharmacy and they weren't very good, to be quite honest. They were devoid of their original sepia tones and were in gray and white. Also, the picture is quite small and brittle and there was a crease/crack down the center of the photo that went straight through her face. My mom wanted to put it in a locket, where she already has a small picture of my grandfather (my mom's father). So, I took the photo and told my mom I would fix it with my Photoshop program. So, what I'm gonna do for her birthday, now that I have fixed the photo, is burn the file to a disc and go have some reproductions made. Hurray for birthday surprises!

As I've mentioned before, I rarely go back home. In a nutshell, it just stresses me out on a lot of different levels. I'm still coming to terms with the fact that my parents and I lead very different lifestyles. This is neither a good thing or a bad thing, it just leaves me feeling depressed that in lieu of simple solutions to what look like complicated problems, my parents will not follow my advice when it comes to various aspects of their home. Oh well, I just need to realize that their choices/solutions (or lack thereof) are not mine.

ANYWAY, while I was there I had the opportunity to take come pictures and visit one of my favorite "junk" stores, where I found some great records, which I'll be blogging about at a later date (along with all the stuff I ended up coming home with). In the meantime, here are some of the photos I took during my trip. *(It was a rainy, overcast day, so I apologize for some of the darker-than-usual photos.)

[1] One of my parent's kitties. She was in the middle of a lazy "meow." I don't think she has a name. My parents are weird like that. They name the dogs but not the cats. Don't ask.

[2] This is Rocket. I told her to say "cheeese" and she did! She's pretty old. She may look mean, but she's a real sweetie. My parents dig the big dogs. Always have. I've never been a big fan of big dogs, but apparently they like 'em. To each his own.

[3] My mom has an insanely green thumb. I swear she can grow anything. The yard is full of all kinds of beautiful flowers she got a 'start' from various places. I love these purple flowers that are along the east side of the house. They are always full of butterflies. Their yard is always lush and green. I'm jealous.

[4] This is my parents new dog. Her name is Freckles. Daddy thinks she's ugly, but I think she's just too cute. I love her little ears. I think I heard Mother say something about them having been "pinned"...whatever that means. She's sweet, but god, she's hyper (the dog, not my Mother). I was lucky to get one good photo of her. You wouldn't believe how many I had to take to get THIS one!

[5] The front and west side of the house is surrounded by chain link fence and the gates have these terrific little characters on top of them. I LOVE them. The ones on the double gate are horses (I forgot to take a picture of them) and this cute little doggy is on the front gate. I don't ever see stuff like this anymore, so they must be pretty old. I know we've had them ever since we owned the house and that's been since the 60's. Just another one of those little things I love.

[6-9] These are some old buildings downtown. I love the architecture. It's a shame that most of them are sitting unused. The red brick building with the fire escape used to be the home of a sewing machine outlet. The old sign that was once painted on the side of the building is faded, but you can still make out what it says.

[10] This is a close-up of some Maple leaves. I LOVE those kind of trees. This one was so insanely green. Really beautiful.

[11] This is a great old building downtown. It used to be the old JCPenney department store. I have fond memories of going downstairs and picking up our catalog orders and rifling through the Garanimals clothes. Surely you remember Garanimals. They were a line of children's clothing that came with animal-shaped price/size tags that were color-coded (i.e. green monkeys, orange elephants, etc.) and you could coordinate your own outfits just by matching the tags! Perfect for kids with no fashion sense! I love the design and the huge windows and the figural bas relief in the center of the building. Would make such a great loft space!

[12] A close-up of the peeling paint on the door in the above archway.

[13] A still life with a water meter and a grate that I liked.

[14] A giant, inflatable, pink monkey wearing an itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini. She was in a car dealership's parking lot in Fort Worth.

[15/16] A chemical plant in Fort Worth blew up, while I was driving back home to Arlington. I snapped these pictures of the smoke plumes. Thankfully, no one was killed.